Novel
Lettre posthume
Not translated into English
Dominique Eddé · 1989
Synopsis
An elderly man, whom his cowardice as much as his good upbringing have delivered over to his time, writes a long letter to a French friend. Emerging from the first years of the war, he casts a disenchanted eye on his country and tries to revive the memory of a gentler Lebanon, that of the famous lights of the Orient.
Context
The book appears in Paris from Gallimard in 1989, in one hundred and thirty-five pages; it is the first by its author, who had teaching, publishing and journalism behind her. Brief and dense, it takes the form of a letter and not of a continuous narrative. Its author has since published several novels, including Kamal Jann, essays and interviews; three of her books have been translated into English, but not this one.
Who it is for
In French, the author's language of writing. Short, with no plot: a voice speaking, and the country is glimpsed there more than it is told.
Prizes and reception
The first book of a novelist whom the Académie française will honour in 2013 for Kamal Jann.